Quarantine Movie Marathon results

Many people around me have been talking about fun "quarantine projects" involving books, Netflix series marathons, movies (I've been organizing online Saturday "movie nights" with friends)... And then it came to me! A quarantine-long movie marathon in which the criteria were:

• Has to be a movie I own (some of them haven't been taken off the shelves in a loooong time)
• Whichever movie I watch has to be related somehow to the previous one (with the exception of Saturday Movie Night, since that's a consensus pick among the gang)

I've definitely got enough DVDs to get me through a very long quarantine, the challenge will be linking them together! So far I've seen (extended or director's editions whenever possible):

1. The Hobbit trilogy (dir. Peter Jackson, based on book by Tolkien)
1. An Unexpected Journey
2. The Desolation of Smaug
3. The Battle of the Five Armies
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (dir. Peter Jackson, based on books by Tolkien) 
1. The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Two Towers
3. The Return of the King
3. A Knight's Tale (dir. Brian Helgeland, starring Heath Ledger)
4. The Kingdom of Heaven (dir. Riddley Scott, starring Orlando Bloom)
5. Pirates of the Caribbean 
1. The Curse of the Black Pearl (dir. Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush)
2. Dead Man's Chest (dir. Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley)
3. At World's End (dir. Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush)
4. On Stranger Tides (dir. Rob Marhsall, starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Penelope Cruz)
5. Dead Men Tell no Tales (dir. Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg, starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Javier Bardem)
6. The Pirate (dir. Vincente Minelli, starring Judy Garland & Gene Kelly)
7. The Goonies (dir. Richard Donner, story by Steven Spielberg, script by Chris Columbus)

No need to explain the relationship between the first two trilogies, pretty self-explanatory. But can you figure out the connections between the ones that follow? I'll admit I had to stretch a bit to link A Knight's Tale to Return of the King since I watched it (and Kingdom of Heaven) before I decided this was how I was going to plan my quarantine movie-watching. But there is a link.

I'm having a hard time deciding what to watch next... Super Eight or ET? Both are linked to the Goonies in the "kids on an adventure in the '80s" and the Spielberg connection, it's more a matter of where I go next... Maybe both then Indiana Jones (Spielberg), Swing Kids (Nazis!). But from there do I segue into Dead Poet Society (actor link) or Empire of the Sun (still WW2)? The former puts me on a Robin Williams track, the latter leads to the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy and '90s Little Women (both with Christian Bale). Of course after the Goonies I could directly segue into Harry Potter since the first two films were written and directed by Chris Columbus who wrote the Goonies' script... I could also go for the last Avengers films since Josh Brolin is in those and is a Goonies! Tough choices!!! No wonder I haven't watched one since the Goonies on Sunday! 😅

Corona-Lockdown Spanish Edition - 100 days

100 days of lockdown. 100 days of gradually evolving from being locked in our homes to slowly being allowed out for exercise, to slowly reopening of closed businesses and restaurants to all these opening further with a greater presence of shoppers or eaters...

The state of alarm ends in Spain tomorrow at midnight. The "new normal" starts on Sunday. We're starting to get instructions to go back to work on a more or less regular schedule (less working from home). Offers for summer camps for kids are published. Airports are opening and foreign and national tourists are expected to start arriving on July 1st.

But we keep hearing about new outbreaks. In China. In Germany. In several points here in Spain. It seems like some people are all "viva la vida" and blanking on the coronavirus and what we've lived through, desperate to get back to "life as usual", while the others seem to be living in a state of anxious paranoia worried that we're opening up too soon, the virus is still here we're told. What if there are outbreaks that can't be traced? In the news yesterday they said about two thirds of Spaniards aren't planning on going anywhere on vacation, and this in a country where it's almost an obligatory tradition to head out for a month to a beach or village or mountain holiday... And those of us who live in holiday destinations are actually worried about people coming here from other parts of the country (Madrid we're looking at you!) and other countries (UK...) and increasing the risk of our being exposed to the virus in our own city... 

Corona-Lockdown Spanish Edition - D81 - Fase 2!!!

Two weeks later, on schedule, the province of Alicante has graduate to Phase 2 of the lockdown de-escalation! 🥳 As of today we can meet up in groups of 15 (instead of 10), go to the beach (for other activities than just walking), go for walks / exercise at any time of the day except the hours reserved for the at-risk people (10h-12h & 19h-20h), go to the pool (as long as the maximum number of people is below 30% of regular occupancy). Shops / businesses larger than 400 m2 can now fully open (including the malls, just not their recreational spaces), churches can host weddings, movie theaters can open (although they're all holding out a bit longer, I think they want to wait until the whole country is in Phase 3 so the cinemas can open under the same conditions, and hopefully there are some new movies to entice people to go).

Cities with beaches have been working out how they're going to ensure social distancing and reduce contact... Some (like Benidorm up the coast) have decided to wait a few more weeks before opening so they can better prepare. Alicante's sandy beaches are open as of today.